During repair or maintenance of a vehicle, it is frequently necessary to remove wheel elements, such as brake drums and/or brake rotors from axles or wheel hubs. However, tolerances between brake drums or rotors and their wheel hubs is extremely small. Because of the small tolerances, and because wheel hubs bear the weight of the vehicle, extended use of the vehicle can cause the brake drum or brake rotor to become essentially fused or seized on the wheel hub.
Once a wheel element, such as a brake drum or brake rotor, becomes seized on the wheel hub, it can be very difficult to remove the wheel element from the vehicle by hand. Common practice in the vehicle repair industry is to have a mechanic hoist the vehicle, heat the seized wheel element and then hammer on the wheel element from the inside until the brake drum or brake rotor becomes loose enough to remove.
This method, however, can cause damage to the brake drum, brake rotor, wheel bearing or other parts of the vehicle during hammering. Further, this operation can be labor intensive and can jeopardize the safety of the mechanic when hammering the wheel element while under the vehicle.
In order to address these problems, the prior art provides a number of different wheel pulling devices to assist in removal of brake drums, brake rotors, or other similar elements from their mountings on a vehicle. Such devices typically include a main support bar, an actuator screw threaded through a mid-portion of the support bar, and working jaw members removably mounted on opposite ends of the support bar. In use of a conventionally known wheel pulling device, the jaw members are engageable with outer peripheries of the brake drum or brake rotor and the actuator screw is threaded through the support bar against the wheel hub or wheel axle to apply a pulling force against the brake drum or brake rotor through the jaw members. However, the placing and holding of the jaw members in engagement with a brake drum or brake rotor while also rotating the actuator screw proves to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, by one using his own two hands.
Thus, it remains desirable to provide a removal tool for extracting a wheel element, such as a brake drum or brake rotor, from a wheel supporting element, such as a wheel hub, in a manner which improves upon prior art devices, and is efficiently utilized for exerting a quick and uniform pulling force.